Animals get assist back to the wild life

Updated 1:39 am, Sunday, December 9, 2012

Li'l Smokey, the bear cub with burned paws, found by forest fire fighters, is Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care's most famous successful rescue.

Li'l Smokey, the bear cub with burned paws, found by forest fire fighters, is Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care's most famous successful rescue.

Photo: Tom Millham, Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care

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Chips the baby bobcat

Chips the baby bobcat

Photo: Tom Millham, Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care

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Birds of all species, typically with wing injures or juvenile orphans, are rehabilitated at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.

Birds of all species, typically with wing injures or juvenile orphans, are rehabilitated at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.

Photo: Tom Millham, Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care

Animals get assist back to the wild life

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On a small wood platform, a 25-pound bear cub named Ojai tried to sleep. No way.

Above Ojai, another cub, this one named Allie, reached down and poked Ojai in the side to wake her, then whacked her in the nose.

To the side of Allie, yet another cub, Llano, jumped Allie from the side, gave her a love bite on the head, smacked her in the left ear. The next thing you know, the three little bear cubs had a tag-team wrestling match.

This entire scene was visible to the world this past week on a new webcam operated by Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, which takes in injured wildlife and orphaned juvenile bears, bobcats and other wild animals that otherwise would die.

This fall, donations and volunteers made it possible for Tahoe Wildlife to stream nine live videos from its animal pens. You can see them at ltwc.org.

The three bear cubs were last week's favorites. Recent highlights include a little bobcat kitten named Chips and a posse of occasionally rambunctious raccoons.

The webcams are on 24/7, though, to simulate day/night, the lights at the facility are turned on from about 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The nine cams can be found at the "Webcams" tab on the Tahoe Wildlife main page; inside is a list of links.

The best time to watch is usually from about 11 a.m. to noon. The bears are scheduled to be fed at 11 a.m., although it can take them a while to get around to it.

This past week, you could have seen the bear cubs atop a platform, poking each other, then heading down the ladder to munch.

Of course, this is no zoo. The animals are kept insulated from the public so they do not get socialized, and there is no visitation (except for one day a year for fund-raising). That ensures the best chance for survival upon release, when they are healthy and can fend for themselves.

Live Bear TV can be addicting. The hope is the public will fall in love with them and, in turn, donate to help the facility stay in business.

Tahoe Wildlife Care has 10 bears right now; seven are hibernating, despite the warm mountain weather for December. They've taken in six bobcats this year, all rehabilitated and successfully released, along with an adult bald eagle, blue grouse, peregrine falcon, raven, owl and many others.

The center takes in about 700 animals annually with a survival of about 65 percent, said Denise Upton at the facility. If the animals were left on their own, the survival rate would be about zero.

The animals are often named after the areas where they are rescued. The bear cub Allie is from Alpine Meadows in Placer County, where it had been reported for weeks wandering alone, malnourished and starving. Llano was found in similar condition, at 11 pounds, near the town of Llano in the San Bernardino Mountains, Upton said.

"Ojai was found in an avocado orchard, same thing, looking for something to eat, only 12 pounds, crying with no mom," Upton said. "When a 12-pound cub is found in the fall, that's a cub that is going to die. It can't make it through winter to spring. The food sources will dry up."

The bears are up to 25 pounds this week, but in the wild for hibernation in December, they should weigh at least 50 to 75 pounds to make it to spring.

One if the live-cam TV stars, a tiny bobcat, was named Chips after being found amid ashes and embers by firefighters working the Chips Fire in late August near Lake Almanor. Another story that made the mainstream press was the rehabilitation of a baby river otter found drowning in Corte Madera Creek in Marin County. At Tahoe Wildlife Care, the otter learned how to swim, then was transferred to a facility in Sonoma to be paired with another orphaned otter that was also alone.

The stories are small and off the radar, but each one is touching. The most famous is the tale of Li'l Smokey, the bear cub found with burned paws and near death in the ashes and embers of a forest fire. Li'l Smokey was rescued by firefighters, saved and rehabilitated by Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, then released into the wild.

Last week, a raven was spotted at South Lake Tahoe snared in monofilament line used for fishing or kites, Upton said.

"All his raven buddies were flying around and screaming," Upton said. "It racked our brains. How do we rescue it?"

Brennen Davis, a nearby resident, tied a piece of twine to a baseball, then threw the baseball over the line, and with the twine, was able to then pull the monofilament to the ground and cut the line away.

"This was a full grown raven," Upton said. "The bird fluttered down to the ground, then staggered over to Davis' deck and stood there, allowing him to cut and remove the tangled line. No fight. Calm. The raven knew it was being helped."

The raven is now at Tahoe Wildlife Care, being treated for wing injuries. When it recovers, like all wildlife treated at the facility, the raven will be released where it was captured.